UC-NRLF 


SB    310    1471 


GIFT    OF 

JANE 


Thomas  Jefferson 


Man  of   Letters 


LEWIS    HENRY   BOUTELL 


CHICAGO 

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at 

The  Northwestern   University, 

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THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 


THE  visitor  at  Monticello  finds  in 
scribed  on  the  granite  obelisk  that 
marks  the  grave  of  Thomas  Jefferson 
the  following  words:  "Here  was  buried 
Thomas  Jefferson,  author  of  the  Declara 
tion  of  American  Independence,  of  the 
Statute  of  Virginia  for  religious  free 
dom,  and  Father  of  the  University  of 
Virginia." 

As  this  epitaph,  found  among  Jeffer 
son's  papers  after  his  death,  was  com 
posed  by  himself,  it  shows  what  acts  of 
his  life  he  looked  back  upon  with  most 
pleasure,  and  deemed  most  worthy  of 
enduring  fame.  Pondering  these  words, 
we  naturally  ask  ourselves  did  Jefferson 
form  a  correct  estimate  of  himself  and 


8  Thomas  Jefferson, 

his  work  ?  The  three  acts  with  which  he 
desires  his  name  to  be  forever  associated 
are  those  which  mark  the  beginning 
and  the  close  of  his  career,  and  which 
render  him  illustrious,  not  so  much  as 
a  statesman,  as  a  man  of  letters.  The 
long  period  of  middle  life  from  1779 
to  1809,  from  the  beginning  of  his  term 
as  Governor  of  Virginia  to  the  close  of 
his  eight  years'  presidency,  was  largely 
a  period  of  conflict, — disappointment  and 
failure  alternating  with  success  and  grati 
fied  ambition.  As  to  the  value  of  his 
services  during  this  period  men  have  dif 
fered  greatly ;  but  his  early  manhood, 
and  his  closing  years,  the  dawn  and  the 
setting  of  his  life,  form  a  pleasing  pict 
ure,  upon  which  men  will  always  love  to 
linger. 

In  the  famous  Congress  of  1776  Jeffer 
son  was  one  of  the  youngest  members, 
being  at  that  time  thirty-three  years  of 
age.  How  did  it  happen  that  so  young 


The  Man  of  Letters.  9 

a  man  was  placed  on  the  committee  to 
prepare  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
and  was  requested  by  the  other  members 
of  that  committee,  such  men  as  Franklin, 
Adams,  Sherman  and  Livingston,  to  write 
that  important  document  ?  It  was  partly 
the  result  of  accident.  The  resolution  of 
the  Virginia  Legislature,  requesting  Con 
gress  to  declare  the  American  Colonies 
independent  of  Great  Britain,  was  pre 
sented  to  Congress  by  Richard  H.  Lee. 
From  that  fact,  and  from  his  high  reputa 
tion  as  a  revolutionary  orator,  Lee  would 
naturally  have  been  placed  on  the  com 
mittee  to  prepare  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence.  But  being  suddenly  called 
home  by  the  sickness  of  his  wife,  Jeffer 
son  was  selected  to  represent  Virginia  on 
that  committee.  Being  upon  the  commit 
tee  he  was  chosen  to  write  the  Declaration 
from  the  skill  he  had  shown  in  drawing 
similar  instruments.  Let  us  briefly  glance 
at  the  training  which  fitted  him  for  this 
important  task. 


io  Thomas  Jefferson, 

When  Jefferson  was  fourteen  years  of 
age  his  father  died.  He  was  a  man  of 
great  strength  of  character,  and  made  up 
for  the  deficiencies  of  an  early  education 
by  devoting  his  evenings  to  a  diligent 
study  of  the  best  English  authors.  He 
took  special  pains  with  the  physical  and 
mental  training  of  his  oldest  son,  Thomas, 
and  at  his  death  not  only  left  him  a 
handsome  property,  but  provided  that  he 
should  receive  a  thorough  classical  edu 
cation.  The  son  honored  the  father's 
memory  by  a  scholarly  diligence,  which 
made  him  one  of  the  most  learned  Ameri 
cans  of  his  time,  and  which  was  the  source 
of  the  purest  pleasures  of  his  long  and 
eventful  life.  He  often  said  "that  if  he 
was  to  decide  between  the  pleasures  de 
rived  from  the  classical  education  which 
his  father  had  given  him,  and  the  estate 
left  him,  he  would  decide  in  favor  of  the 
former." 

As  a  scholar  he  showed  equal  aptitude 


The  Man  of  Letters.  1 1 

for  mathematics  and  the  classics.  It  is  a 
singular  fact  that  his  taste  for  mathemat 
ics  was  strongest  in  his  youth,  while  his 
taste  for  the  classics  was  strongest  in  his 
old  age.  He  had  a  passion  for  all  sorts 
of  knowledge.  His  favorite  poets  were 
among  the  classics,  Homer,  the  Greek 
dramatists,  and  Horace;  among  the  mod 
erns,  Tasso,  Moliere,  Shakspeare,  Milton, 
Dryden,  Pope,  and  the  English  ballad, 
pastoral  and  lyric  writers.  He  had  little 
taste  for  novels,  "Don  Quixote"  being  the 
only  one  he  ever  read  a  second  time,  or 
ever  very  keenly  relished. 

After  receiving  a  thorough  preparatory 
training  in  Latin,  Greek  and  French,  from 
the  clergymen  of  his  neighborhood,  he 
entered  the  college  of  William  and  Mary, 
at  Williamsburg,  then  the  seat  of  the 
Colonial  Court.  Through  his  mother's 
relatives,  the  Randolphs,  one  of  the  most 
influential  families  in  Virginia,  he  was  in 
troduced  at  once  to  the  best  society  of 


12  Thomas  Jefferson, 

the  Capital.  With  a  passion  for  fine  hor 
ses  and  for  playing  the  violin,  to  which, 
for  several  years,  he  devoted  three  hours 
a  day,  there  was  danger  that  he  would 
become  a  man  of  fashion  rather  than  a 
scholar.  From  this  he  was  saved  by  the 
friendship  of  Dr.  William  Small,  Professor 
of  Mathematics  at  William  and  Mary,  and 
ad  interim  Professor  of  Philosophy.  Of 
this  teacher,  who  supplied  the  place  of  a 
father,  and  was  at  once  "  guide,  philoso 
pher  and  friend, "he  said,  in  afterlife,  that 
it  was  Dr.  Small's  instruction  and  inter 
course  that  "  probably  fixed  the  destinies 
of  his  life." 

Through  Dr.  Small  Jefferson  made 
the  acquaintance  of  George  Wythe,  one 
of  the  leading  lawyers  of  Virginia,  and  of 
Gov.  Fauquier,  whom  Jefferson  calls  "the 
ablest  man  who  ever  filled  that  office." 
With  these  accomplished  men  Jefferson 
was  accustomed  to  meet  at  the  table  of 
the  Governor. 


The  Man  of  Letters.  13 

"At  these  dinners,"  Jefferson  wrote  in 
1815,  "I  have  heard  more  good  sense, 
more  rational  and  philosophical  conver 
sation,  than  in  all  my  life  besides.  They 
were  truly  Attic  societies."  In  this  stim 
ulating  intercourse  he  developed  that 
talent  for  conversation  which,  through 
out  his  life,  was  such  a  chanrfand  power, 
and  which  perhaps  more  than  compen 
sated  for  the  gift  of  oratory  which  was 
denied  him. 

This  delightful  social  intercourse  had 
one  drawback.  With  all  Gov.  Fauquier's 
accomplishments  he  had  some  serious 
faults.  He  was  a  reckless  gambler  and  a 
disciple  of  Shaftesbury  and  Bolingbroke. 
Some  have  thought  that  from  him  Jeffer 
son  derived  his  skeptical  notions.  How 
ever  that  may  be,  he  managed  to  escape 
the  vice  of  gambling  on  the  principle  of 
total  abstinence.  He  never  learned  to 
distinguish  one  card  from  another,  and  it 
is  said  card  playing  was  never  permitted 


14  Thomas  Jefferson, 

in  his  house.  It  is  a  curious  fact,  in  this 
connection,  that  in  his  old  age,  when  bur 
dened  with  debt,  he  should  have  asked 
the  Legislature  of  Virginia  to  pass  an  act 
to  enable  him  to  dispose  of  his  property 
by  a  lottery. 

Soon   after   leaving    college,   Jefferson 

commenced  the  study  of  law  with  George 

Wythe,  at  Williamsburg,   and    after  five 

years  of  diligent  study  with  this  eminent 

jurist,  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1767, 

when  he  was   twenty-four  years    of   age. 

fThe  strong  anti-slavery  principles  of  Mr. 

jWythe  must   have  exerted  no   slight   in- 

Ifluence  on  his  susceptible   pupil,  though 

/  the  pupil  did  not,  like  his  teacher,  eman- 

I  cipate  his  slaves. 

^  While  a  law  student  at  Williamsburg, 
on  the  30th  of  May,  1765,  Jefferson,  stand 
ing  in  the  lobby  of  the  House  of  Burgesses, 
listened  to  Patrick  Henry's  great  speech 
on  the  Stamp  Act.  From  that  time  Jef 
ferson  acted  with  the  most  advanced  of 
the  revolutionary  leaders. 


The  Man  of  Letters.  1 5 

Among  those  who  exerted  a  marked  in 
fluence  on  Jefferson's  early  years  was  his 
oldest  and  favorite  sister  Jane.  She  was 
three  years  his  senior,  and  was  a  woman 
of  superior  understanding  and  great  ele 
vation  of  character.  She  was  his  constant 
companion  when  he  was  at  home,  and  a 
sympathizing  friend  to  whom  he  unlocked 
his  heart.  She  was  a  "singer  of  uncom 
mon  skill  and  sweetness,  and  both  were 
particularly  fond  of  the  solemn  music  used 
by  the  Church  of  England  in  the  Psalms." 
She  died  in  the  fall  of  1765,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-five.  He  cherished  her  memory 
with  the  warmest  affection  to  the  close  of 
life. 

For  seven  years  Jefferson  continued  in 
the  successful  practice  of  the  law.  Owing 
partly  to  a  defect  in  his  voice, — a  tend 
ency  to  become  husky  when  speaking 
above  the  ordinary  tone  of  conversation, 
— and  partly  to  a  dislike  of  controversy, 
he  never  became  an  advocate,  but  devoted 


1 6  Thomas  Jefferson, 

himself  mostly  to  chamber  practice.  £Iis 
writings  display  great  familiarity  with  the 
history  of  the  law,  and  a  strong  taste  for 
its  antiquities. 

To  a  young  man  of  Jefferson's  tastes, 
with  the  revolutionary  eloquence  of  Pat 
rick  Henry  ringing  in  his  ears,  the  law  was 
but  a  stepping-stone  to  a  political  career. 
Two  years  after  his  admission  to  the  bar 
he  was  chosen  a  member  of  the  House  of 
Burgesses.      He  signalized  his    entrance  Tl 
upon  political  life    by  introducing  a  bill  j 
giving   owners   the    right   to   emancipate  ( 
their  slaves.     The  bill  was  defeated,  and  f 
the  right  was  not  given  until  1782. 

In  the  summer  of  1774,  Jefferson  was' 
elected  a  member  of  the  convention  at 
Williamsburg,  which  was  to  choose  dele 
gates  to  a  general  congress  of  all  the 
Colonies.  While  on  his  way  to  this  con 
vention  he  was  taken  ill,  but  before  leav 
ing  home  he  had  prepared  a  draft  of 
instructions  to  the  delegates,  which  he 


The  Man  of  Letters.  17 

now  forwarded  to  the  convention.  It 
was  a  long  document,  giving,  in  great 
detail,  a  history  of  the  relation  of  the  Col 
onies  to  Great  Britain,  setting  forth  the 
acts  of  oppression  of  the  King  and  Parlia 
ment,  and  containing  an  elaborate  legal 
argument  on  the  rights  of  the  Colonies, 
especially  emphasizing  the  point  that  the 
Colonies,  while  subject  to  the  King,  were 
independent  of  Parliament.  The  conven 
tion  did  not  adopt  this  document,  but 
ordered  it  to  be  printed.  It  immediately 
attracted  attention  in  this  country  and 
in  England,  and  the  English  Whigs  pub 
lished  it  with  some  alterations,  under  the. 
title  of  "A  Summary  View  of  the  Rights^ 
of  British  America." 

This  paper  at  once  brought  Jefferson 
into  notice  as  a  political  writer.  It  also 
secured  for  him  the  honor  of  being1  in 
cluded  in  a  bill  of  attainder  with  such  men 
as  Hancock,  the  two  Adamses,  Patrick 
Henry  and  Peyton  Randolph. 


1 8  Thomas  Jefferson, 

On  the  ist  of  June,  1775,  the  Governor 
of  Virginia  convened  the  House  of  Bur 
gesses  to  take  into  consideration  Lord 
North's  conciliatory  proposition.  As  the 
assembling  of  the  House  of  Burgesses 
withdrew  Peyton  Randolph,  the  Speaker 
of  the  House,  from  Congress,  Jefferson 
was  chosen  to  succeed  him.  But  before 
he  left,  he  was  selected  to  prepare  the 
reply  of  Virginia  to  this  proposition.  On 
the  2 ist  of  June,  1775,  he  took  his  seat  in 
Congress,  bringing  with  him  this  reply. 

Of  Jefferson's  arrival  in  Congress,  John 
Adams  says :  "  Mr.  Jefferson  came  into 
Congress  in  June,  1775,  and  brought  with 
him  a  reputation  for  literature,  science, 
and  a  happy  talent  of  composition.  Writ 
ings  of  his  were  handed  about,  remarkable 
for  the  peculiar  felicity  of  expression." 
The  writings  thus  referred  to  were  the 
"  Summary  View  of  the  Rights  of  British 
America,"  and  the  reply  to  Lord  North's 
proposition. 


The  Man  of  Letters.  19 

Five  days  after  Jefferson  took  his  seat 
in  Congress  he  was  placed  on  a  commit 
tee  to  prepare  a  declaration  of  the  causes 
of  taking  up  arms.  He  prepared  a  draft 
which  proved  unsatisfactory  to  Mr.  Dick 
inson,  a  prominent  member  of  the  com 
mittee.  So  Mr.  Dickinson  prepared  a 
draft,  which  was  recommended  by  the 
committee,  and  adopted  by  Congress. 

On  the  22nd  of  July,  1775,  Jefferson 
was  put  on  the  committee  to  report  on 
Lord  North's  conciliatory  proposition. 
At  the  request  of  his  colleagues,  Franklin, 
Adams  and  R.  H.  Lee,  he  prepared  the 
report,  which  was  substantially  like  the 
one  he  had  prepared  for  Virginia,  and 
which  was  adopted  by  Congress  July  3ist, 

1775- 

So  that  when  the  time  came  to  prepare 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  Jeffer 
son  \vas  a  practiced  revolutionary  writer. 
No  member  of  Congress  had  a  higher  rep 
utation  than  he  for  that  kind  of  literary 
work. 


2O  Thomas  Jefferson, 

The  Declaration,  as  drawn  by  Jefferson, 
was  very  considerably  modified  by  Con 
gress.  Not  only  were  words  and  sen 
tences  changed,  but  about  one-fourth  of 
the  entire  matter  was  stricken  out.  These 
changes  generally  improved  the  paper, 
making  it  not  only  briefer,  but  simpler, 
more  exact,  and  more  dignified. 

One  of  the  most  important  changes  was 
/striking  out  the  paragraph  relating  to  the 
slave  trade.  As  some  of  the  Colonies  had 
been  very  glad  to  receive  the  slaves,  and 
others  had  themselves  engaged  in  the 
slave  trade,  the  fact  that  England  had 
brought  slaves  here  hardly  seemed  to  jus 
tify  rebellion  against  the  mother  country. 

Another  important  passage  which  was 
stricken  out  was  that  in  which,  while  rec 
ognizing  our  allegiance  to  the  King  of 
England,  it  was  denied  that  Parliament 
had  any  power  over  us.  In  his  autobiog 
raphy  Jefferson  claims  that  he  had  enter 
tained  this  view  from  the  first,  and  that 


The  Man  of  Letters.  21 

Mr.  Wythe  was  the  only  person  who 
agreed  with  him.  It  seems  strange  that 
Jefferson  should  have  fallen  into  the  error 
of  supposing  this  view  peculiar  to  himself. 
When  Parliament,  after  the  peace  of  1763, 
set  up  the  claim  to  unlimited  power  over 
the  Colonies,  it  was  met  by  the  counter 
claim  that  the  Colonies  were  independent 
of  Parliament.  But  while  this  view,  as  a 
theoretical  speculation,  was  held  by  many 
leading  men  in  the  country,  the  histori 
cal  fact  was  also  clearly  recognized  that, 
from  the  first,  Parliament  had  exercised  a 
control  over  the  Colonies  in  commercial 
matters.  Though  the  manner  in  which 
this  control  was  exercised  was  at  times 
complained  of  as  oppressive,  the  right  to 
exercise  it  was  admitted  in  all  the  state 
papers  put  forth  by  the  colonial  con 
gresses  of  1765,  1774  and  1775.  In  these 
famous  documents,  in  which  the  rights 
and  the  grievances  of  the  Colonies  were 
so  ably  stated,  the  colonists,  with  true 


22  Thomas  Jefferson, 

English  instinct,  placed  themselves,  as 
their  ancestors  in  England  had  done  be 
fore  them  in  their  struggles  for  liberty, 
on  historical  ground.  They  rebelled,  not 
because  of  the  commercial  restrictions  to 
which  they  had  always  submitted,  but 
because  Parliament  had  undertaken  to 
exercise  a  new  power  over  them,  to  tax 
them  without  their  consent.  They  re 
belled,  not  because  Parliament  had  inter 
fered  with  their  natural  rights  as  men, 
but  because  it  had  interfered  with  their 
historical  rights  as  Englishmen.  To  have 
retained  in  the  Declaration  of  Independ 
ence  Jefferson's  statement  that  the  Colo 
nies  were  independent  of  Parliament, 
would  have  been  to  contradict  the  most 
solemn  declarations  of  Congress  for  the 
two  preceding  years. 

Edmund  Burke,  in  his  great  speech  on 
American  Taxation,  showed  that  he  un 
derstood  the  Americans  perfectly  when 
he  pointed  out  that  they  were  contending 


The  Man  of  Letters.  23 

for  liberties  based,  not  on  metaphysical 
speculations,  but  historical  facts.  "Again 
and  again,"  he  said  in  his  appeal  to  Parlia 
ment,  "revert  to  your  old  principles, — 
seek  peace  and  ensue  it, — leave  America, 
if  she  has  taxable  matter  in  her,  to  tax 
herself.  I  am  not  here  going  into  the 
distinction  of  rights,  nor  attempting  to 
mark  their  boundaries.  I  do  not  enter 
into  these  metaphysical  distinctions ;  I 
hate  the  very  sound  of  them.  Leave  the 
Americans  as  they  anciently  stood,  and 
these  distinctions,  born  of  our  unhappy 
contest,  will  die  along  with  it.  They  and 
we,  and  their  and  our  ancestors,  have 
been  happy  under  that  system.  Let  the 
memory  of  all  actions  in  contradiction  to 
that  good  old  mode,  on  both  sides,  be 
extinguished  forever.  Be  content  to  bind 
America  by  laws  of  trade.  You  have  al 
ways  done  it.  Let  this  be  your  reason 
for  binding  their  trade.  Do  not  burden 
them  by  taxes — you  were  not  used  to 


24  Thomas  Jefferson, 

do  so  from  the  beginning.  Let  this  be 
your  reason  for  not  taxing.  These  are 
the  arguments  of  states  and  kingdoms. 
Leave  the  rest  to  the  schools,  for  there 
only  they  may  be  discussed  with  safety." 
Eight  years  before  this  famous  speech 
of  Burke's,  Benjaman  Franklin  had  ex 
pressed  substantially  the  same  views,  in 
his  examination  before  the  House  of 
Commons,  in  reference  to  the  repeal  of 
the  Stamp  Act. 

/-'/That  Jefferson,  in  justifying  the  action 
if   the    colonists,    should    have    thought 
more  of  metaphysical  rights  than  histori- 
/cal  facts,  illustrates   one  of   the   marked 

4 — ^.  .... 

/  features  of  his  character.     He  was  often 

I 

more  of  a  doctrinaire  than  a  practical 
statesman.  He  reminds  us  of  the  words 
which  Burke  applied  on  a  certain  occa 
sion  to  Chatham:  "For  a  wise  man  he 
seemed  to  me  at  that  time  to  be  gov 
erned  too  much  by  general  maxims." 
It  is,  however,  undoubtedly  true,  that 


The  Man  of  Letters.  25 

the  attractive  part  of  the  Declaration,  to 
men  of  post-revolutionary  times,  has  been, 
not  the  recital  of  the  wrongs  of  the  Col 
onies,  but  the  statement  with  which  the 
Declaration  opens,  of  the  rights  of  men 
in  civil  societies,  and  the  violation  of 
those  rights  which  justify  rebellion. 

There  is  barely  time,  in  this  connection, 
to  refer  to  that  curiosity  of  literature 
known  as  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration 
of  Independence.  On  the  3Oth  of  April, 
1819,  some  forty-three  years  after  Jeffer 
son's  Declaration  was  written,  there  ap 
peared  in  the  Raleigh  (N.  C.)  Register 
what  purported  to  be  a  Declaration  of 
Independence,  drawn  up  by  the  citizens 
of  Mecklenburg  County,  North  Carolina, 
on  May  2Oth,  1775.  As  this  was  nearly 
fourteen  months  before  the  Colonies  de 
clared  their  independence,  and  as  many 
of  the  expressions  in  the  Mecklenburg 
paper  bore  a  striking  resemblance  to 
Jefferson's  expressions,  it  excited  a  good 


26  Thomas  Jefferson, 

deal  of  curiosity,  and  led  to  a  discussion 
which  has  been  continued  to  the  present 
day.  Those  desirous  of  seeing  the  argu 
ments  pro  and  con,  put  in  their  latest  and 
best  form,  will  find  them  in  two  articles 
in  the  Magazine  of  American  History,  in 
the  January  and  March  numbers  of  1889. 
It  is  sufficient  here  to  say  that  there  was 
found  among  the  British  State  papers,  as 
well  as  in  contemporaneous  newspapers 
in  this  country,  the  original  Mecklenburg 
paper,  which  was  not  a  Declaration  of 
Independence  at  all,  but  simply  patriotic 
resolutions  similar  to  those  which  were 
published  in  most  of  the  Colonies  at  that 
time.  And  so  the  Mecklenburg  Declara 
tion  takes  its  place  with  the  stories  of 
Pocahontas  and  of  William  Tell. 

The   Statute   of  Virginia   for   religious 

freedom    formed  only  one  of  a  body  of 

laws   drawn  up  by  a  committee  for  revis- 

^  ing  the  laws  of  Virginia,  composed  of  Jef- 

~ferson,  George  Wythe  and  Edmund  Pen- 


The  Man  of  Letters.  27 

dleton.  It  was  not  more  important  than 
many  other  laws  of  a  reformatory  charac 
ter  introduced  by  Jefferson  in  the  Virginia 
Legislature./  But  Jefferson  always  prided 
himself  on  the  liberality  of  his  religious 
views.  Religion,  he  was  accustomed  to 
say,  was  a  matter  simply  between  man 
and  his  Maker,  with  which  others  should 
not  interfere. 

To  such  an  extent  did  he  carry  these 
views  that  he  would  not  attempt  to  in 
fluence  the  religious  belief  of  his  own 
children.  They  did  not  know,  till  late  in 
life,  what  was  the  religious  belief  of  their 
father.  Then  they  discovered  that  he  was 
what  would  be  called  to-day  a  radical  Uni 
tarian.  An  amusing  illustration  of  the 
inconsistency  which  Jefferson  so  often  ex 
hibited  between  theory  and  practice  oc 
curred  in  reference  to  his  oldest  daughter. 
When  he  went  to  Paris,  he  placed  her  at 
school  in  a  convent.  After  a  time,  she 
wrote  to  him  of  her  desire  to  become  a 


28  Thomas  Jefferson, 

nun.  The  only  reply  he  made  was  to 
take  her  from  school,  and  put  her  in  the 
midst  of  the  gay  society  of  the  Court, 
where  she  soon  forgot  her  desire  to  lead 
5  the  life  of  a  religious  recluse. 

From  1779  to  1809  Jefferson  filled  by 
turns  the  offices  of  Governor  of  Virginia, 
Member  of  Congress,  Minister  to  France, 
Secretary  of  State,  Vice-President  and 
President.  His  two  years  as  Governor 
of  Virginia  were  the  most  mortifying  and 
unfortunate  years  of  his  life.  It  was  at  a 
time  when  Virginia,  weakened  by  her  ef 
forts  to  supply  the  continental  troops,  was 
overrun  by  an  invading  army.  Jefferson 
had  not  a  single  qualification  for  such  an 
emergency.  He  tried  to  do  his  best,  but 
in  the  end,  Governor  and  Legislature  were 
obliged  to  seek  safety  in  flight.  At  the 
close  of  his  term  of  service,  an  inquiry 
into  his  conduct  was  demanded.  Nothing 
came  of  it,  and  the  Legislature  of  Virginia 
subsequently  passed  resolutions  of  com- 


The  Man  of  Letters.  29 

mendation  for  his  services.  It  took  him, 
however,  a  long  time  to  recover  from  this 
blow  to  his  self-esteem.  It  was  during  the 
retirement  following  his  governorship  of 
Virginia  that  he  wrote  his  "  Notes  on  Vir 
ginia,"  a  book  which  added  greatly  to  his 
reputation  as  a  scientific  man  while  he  was 
in  Paris,  where  it  was  first  published. 

His  five  years  as  Minister  to  France, 
from  1784  to  1789,  formed  a  bright  con 
trast  to  the  two  years  of  his  governorship. 
He  was  able  to  accomplish  but  little  in 
regard  to  the  object  of  his  mission,  but  he 
made  no  mistakes,  and  he  enjoyed  the  so 
ciety  of  the  most  cultivated  men  of  Paris, 
and  witnessed  the  opening  scenes  of  the 
French  Revolution. 

On  his  return  to  this  country,  to  enter 
upon  the  duties  of  Secretary  of  State,  he 
began  that  career  of  practical  politics  in 
which  he  exerted  the  most  marked  influ 
ence  on  the  destinies  of  his  country.  He 
organized  a  great  political  party,  the  fun- 


3O  Thomas  Jefferson, 

damental  principle  of  which  was  to  set  the 
narrowest  possible  limit  to  the  powers  of 
the  general  Government.  It  was  at  all 
times  the  party  favoring  a  strict  construc 
tion  of  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution. 
Here  it  occupied  legitimate  constitutional 
ground.  But  in  its  advocacy  of  State 
Rights,  it  began  with  the  nullification 
resolutions  of  Kentucky,  and  ended  with 
secession  and  civil  war. 

Jefferson  has  been  called  the  Father  of 
American  Democracy.  In  organizing  the 
democratic  party,  however,  he  was  a  fol 
lower  rather  than  a  leader  of  public  senti 
ment.  The  fact  is,  that  when  the  Consti 
tution  was  adopted,  the  opposition  to  it 
was  so  strong  that  it  was  believed  that  a 
majority  of  the  people  were  not  in  favor 
of  it.  In  Virginia  especially  this  oppo 
sition  was  very  decided,  and  that  state 
would  probably  have  rejected  the  Con 
stitution  but  for  the  personal  influence  of 
Washington.  When  Jefferson  returned  to 


The  Man  of  Letters.  31 

this  country  from  his  French  mission,  he 
saw  at  a  glance  that  the  trend  of  public 
sentiment  was  toward  State  Rights,  and 
a  strict  construction  of  the  Constitution. 
These  views  undoubtedly  accorded  with 
his  own  tendencies,  for,  as  he  said  of  him 
self,  he  was  "not  a  friend  to  a  very  ener 
getic  government."  Indeed  some  of  his 
expressions  on  this  point  have  a  touch 
of  extravagance  that  would  seem  comic 
if  Jefferson  had  possessed  any  sense  of 
humor.  For  instance,  in  speaking  of  the 
North  American  Indian,  he  said :  "  The 
only  condition  on  earth  to  be  compared 
with  ours,  in  my  opinion,  is  that  of  the 
Indians,  where  they  have  still  less  law 
than  we."  On  another  occasion  he  says: 
"  Were  it  left  to  me  to  decide  whether  we 
should  have  a  government  without  news 
papers,  or  newspapers  without  a  govern 
ment,  I  should  not  hesitate  a  moment  to 
prefer  the  latter." 

The  most  fantastic  notion  of  Jefferson's, 


32  Thomas  Jefferson. 

which  can  only  be  called  a  craze,  was  that 
one  generation  cannot  contract  obliga 
tions  which  shall  be  binding  on  the  next. 
Even  Madison,  with  his  keen  logic,  could 
not  drive  this  crotchet  from  his  head. 
Almost  as  absurd  was  Jefferson's  plan  for 
a  constitutional  amendment  to  prevent 
the  general  Government  from  borrowing 
money. 

Fortunately  the  possession  of  power 
developed  in  Jefferson,  as  it  has  so  often 
done  in  others,  the  saner  and  more  con 
servative  qualities  of  character.  As  Presi 
dent  the  power  of  the  general  Government 
was  not  only  preserved  unimpaired,  but 
in  the  purchase  of  Louisiana,  the  wisest 
act  of  his  administration,  was  stretched 
beyond  all  former  limits.  This  measure 
was  carried  through,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  Jefferson  declared  that  he  thought 
it  unconstitutional,  and  that  an  amend 
ment  of  the  Constitution  should  be  made 
to  ratify  it. 


The  Man  of  Letters.  33 

The  contrast  between  the  radical  utter 
ances  of  Jefferson  at  one  time,  and  his 
conservative  action  at  another,  has  made 
his  character  a  very  difficult  one  to  under 
stand.  While  his  actions  were  often  wiser 
than  his  words,  in  some  cases  his  words 
were  wiser  and  better  than  his  actions. 

This  was  especially  the  case  in  refer 
ence  to  slavery.  No  man  denounced  this 
institution  more  strongly  than  did  Jeffer 
son,  and  yet  he  opposed  the  Missouri  Com 
promise,  because  it  attempted  to  check 
the  spread  of  slavery,  claiming  that  the 
carrying  of  slaves  to  new  territories  would 
ameliorate  their  condition.  He  could  see 
nothing  in  those  who  attempted  to  pre 
vent  slavery  from  spreading  into  the  new 
territories  but  a  selfish  and  sectional  spirit. 

From  the  close  of  his  second  presiden 
tial  term  in  1809,  to  the  end  of  his  life,  in 
1826,  Jefferson  lived  in  retirement,  devot 
ing  himself  principally  to  educational  mat 
ters,  and  especially  to  the  founding  of  the 
University  of  Virginia. 


34  Thomas  Jefferson, 

The  seventeen  years  spent  by  Jefferson 
in  retirement  at  Monticello  were  among 
the  happiest  of  his  life.  They  were  cer 
tainly  not  the  least  useful.  Here  he  gave 
himself  up  to  those  pleasures  for  which 
through  life  he  had  so  ardently  longed, — 
the  cultivation  of  his  farm  and  garden, 
the  freshness  and  freedom  of  the  woods, 
the  mountains  and  the  fields.  Here,  with 
a  more  than  Virginian  hospitality,  he  en 
tertained  all  comers.  He  welcomed  to  his 
table  La  Fayette  and  Webster  and  Tick- 
nor.  He  corresponded  with  the  most 
eminent  men  in  literature  and  science  at 
home  and  abroad.  Here  he  mingled  in 
the  sports  of  his  grandchildren,  or  mused 
on  the  tale  of  Troy  divine.  From  this 
mountain  home  he  looked  out  upon  a 
landscape  of  surpassing  loveliness, — the 
summits  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  the  Rivanna 
flowing  past  the  home  of  his  childhood, 
the  broad  plain  to  the  south  and  east, 
which  stretches  on  and  on  to  the  sea, 


The  Man  of  Letters.  35 

the  solitary  mountain,  in  shape  and  size 
like  the  great  pyramid  of  Egypt,  which 
rises  from  the  midst  of  the  plain  forty 
miles  away.  To  the  west  he  looked 
down  upon  the  city  of  Charlottesville,  by 
the  side  of  which  he  was  at  last  permitted 
to  behold  the  pavilions  and  colonnades  of 
the  University,  and,  towering  above  them 
all,  the  Pantheon-like  dome  of  the  library 
beneath  which,  in  after  years,  was  to  stand 
a  statuex)f  himself,  as  the  presiding  gen 
ius  of  the  place. 

These  years  at  Montjcello,  though  hap 
py,  were  by  no  means  idle.  In  a  letter 
to  Dr.  Utley,  he  says:  "I  was  a  hard 
student  until  I  entered  on  the  business 
of  life,  the  duties  of  which  leave  no  idle 
time  to  those  disposed  to  fulfill  them;  and 
now  retired  at  the  age  of  seventy-six, 
I  am  again  a  hard  student.  *  *  *  I 
am  not  so  regular  in  my  sleep  as  the  Doc 
tor  (Rush)  says  he  was,  devoting  to  it 
from  five  to  eight  hours,  according  as  my 


36  Thomas  Jefferson, 

company  or  the  book  I  am  reading  inter 
ests  me ;  and  I  never  go  to  bed  without 
an  hour  or  half  an  hour's  previous  read 
ing  of  something  moral,  whereon  to  ru 
minate  in  the  intervals  of  sleep.  But 
whether  I  retire  to  bed  early  or  late,  I 
rise  with  the  sun."  The  moral  reading 
of  which  he  was  fondest  was  a  volume  of 
extracts,  made  by  himself,  from  the  gos 
pels,  of  the  words  of  Jesus. 

Jefferson  was  parsimonious  of  his  time. 
"  No  person,"  he  said,  "_will  have  occasion 
to  complain  of  the  want  of  time  who  never 
loses  any.  It  is  wonderful  how  much  may 
be  done  if  we  are  always  doing." 

It  was  in  these  last  years  that  he  re 
newed  his  friendship  with  John  Adams, 
and  carried  on  a  correspondence  with  him 
of  remarkable  interest.  His  letter  on  the 
true  method  of  Greek  pronunciation,  giv 
ing  his  reasons  for  believing  that  the  pro 
nunciation  of  the  modern  Greeks  is  in  the 
main  the  nearest  approach  to  the  pronun- 


The  Man  of  Letters.  37 

elation  of  the  ancient  Greeks  that  we  can 
ever  hope  to  make,  is  very  ingenious  and 
scholarly.  Other  letters,  especially  those 
to  Edward  Everett,  on  grammar  and  style 
and  the  ablative  case  in  Greek,  show  how 
strong  was  the  scholarly  instinct  in  him 
to  the  close  of  his  life.  In  one  of  his 
charmingly  garrulous  letters  to  Adams 
he  writes :  "  I  have  given  up  newspapers 
in  exchange  for  Tacitus  and  Thucydides, 
for  Newton  and  Euclid,  and  I  find  myself 
much  the  happier." 

One  work  which  he  looked  forward  to 
with  interest,  on  his  retirement  from  pub 
lic  life,  was  the  publication  of  his  Indian 
vocabularies  which  he  hoped  would  prove 
a  valuable  contribution  to  the  science  of 
ethnology.  "I  have  long  considered,"  he 
wrote  to  Prof.  Vater,  at  Konigsberg,  "  the 
filiation  of  languages  is  the  best  proof  we 
can  ever  obtain  of  the  filiation  of  nations." 
The  origin  of  the  North  American  Indians, 
their  connection,  if  any,  with  other  na- 


38  Thomas  Jefferson, 

tions,  and  with  one  another,  were  questions 
in  which  he  always  took  a  lively  interest. 
"Very  early  in  life,"  he  writes,  "I  formed 
a  vocabulary  of  such  objects  as,  being 
present  everywhere,  would  probably  have 
a  name  in  every  language;  and  my  course 
of  life  having  given  me  opportunity  of 
obtaining  vocabularies  of  many  Indian 
tribes  I  have  done  so  on  my  original  plan." 
In  the  course  of  thirty  years  he  had  col 
lected  fifty  such  vocabularies.  It  was  his 
intention,  he  said, "  on  retiring  from  public 
business,  to  have  digested  these  into  some 
order  so  as  to  show  not  only  what  rela 
tions  of  language  existed  among  our  own 
aborigines,  but  by  a  collation  with  the 
great  Russian  vocabulary  of  Europe  and 
Asia,  whether  there  were  any  between 
them  and  the  other  nations  of  the  con 
tinent."  Unfortunately  on  his  removal 
from  Washington,  in  1809,  the  package  in 
which  this  collection  was  sent  by  water 
was  stolen  and  destroyed. 


The  Man  of  Letters.  39 

The  fact  that  on  his  retirement  from 
public  life  he  returned,  in  his  old  age, 
with  all  the  enthusiasm  of  youth  to  the 
reading  of  the  classic  authors,  and  that  in 
the  last  years  of  his  life  the  books  most 
often  in  his  hands  were  Homer  and  the 
Greek  tragedians,  shows  the  estimate  he 
placed  on  classical  learning.  But  in  a  let 
ter  to  John  Brazier,  written  in  1819,  his 
views  on  this  subject  are  set  forth  at 
length. 

"  You  ask  my  opinion,"  he  writes,  "  on 
the  extent  to  which  classical  learning 
should  be  carried  in  our  country.  *  * 
*  The  utilities  we  derive  from  the  re 
mains  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  languages 
are,  first,  as  models  of  pure  taste  in  writ 
ing.  To  these  we  are  certainly  indebted 
for  the  rational  and  chaste  style  of  modern 
composition  which  so  much  distinguishes 
the  nations  to  whom  these  languages  are 
familiar.  Without  these  models  we  should 
probably  have  continued  the  inflated  style 


4O  Thomas  Jefferson, 

of  our  Northern  ancestors,  or  the  hyper 
bolical  and  vague  one  of  the  East.  Second: 
among  the  values  of  classical  learning  I 
estimate  the  luxury  of  reading  the  Greek 
and  Roman  authors  in  all  the  beauties 
of  their  originals.  And  why  should  not 
this  innocent  and  elegant  luxury  take  its 
preeminent  stand  ahead  of  all  those  ad 
dressed  merely  to  the  senses?  I  think 
myself  more  indebted  to  my  father  for 
this  than  for  all  the  other  luxuries  his 
care  and  affection  have  placed  within  my 
reach ;  and  more  now  than  when  younger, 
and  more  susceptible  of  the  delights  from 
other  sources.  When  the  decays  of  age 
have  enfeebled  the  useful  energies  of  the 
mind,  the  classic  pages  fill  up  the  vacuum 
of  ennui  and  become  sweet  composers  to 
that  rest  of  the  grave  into  which  we  are 
all  sooner  or  later  to  descend.  A  third 
value  is  in  the  stores  of  real  science,  de 
posited  and  transmitted  us  in  these  lan 
guages,  to  wit:  in  history,  ethics,  arith- 


The  Man  of  Letters.  41 

metic,  geometry,  astronomy,  natural  his 
tory,  etc. 

"But  to  whom  are  these  things  useful? 
Certainly  not  to  all  men.  There  are  con 
ditions  of  life  to  which  they  must  be  for 
ever  estranged,  and  there  are  epochs  of 
life,  too,  after  which  the  endeavor  to  attain 
them  would  be  a  great  misemployment  of 
time.  Their  acquisition  should  be  the 
occupation  of  our  early  years  only,  when 
the  memory  is  susceptible  of  deep  and 
lasting  impressions,  and  reason  and  judg 
ment  are  not  yet  strong  enough  for  ab 
stract  speculation." 

After  pointing  out  the  usefulness  of  the 
classics  to  professional  men,  and  the  fact 
that  to  the  merchant,  the  agriculturist, 
and  the  mechanic  the  ancient  languages 
are  not  necessary,  and  are  but  an  orna 
ment  and  comfort,  he  closes  with  these 
words  :  "  To  sum  the  whole,  therefore,  it 
may  truly  be  said  that  the  classical  lan 
guages  are  a  solid  basis  for  most  and  an 
ornament  to  all  the  sciences." 


42  Thomas  Jefferson, 

In  the  destruction  of  the  public  build 
ings  at  Washington  by  the  British  troops, 
on  the  24th  of  August,  1814,  the  congres 
sional  library  was  burned.  Jefferson  im 
mediately  offered  his  own  library  to  Con 
gress,  leaving  them  to  fix  the  price.  In 
his  letter  to  Samuel  H.  Smith  making  this 
offer  he  says  of  his  collection  of  books : 
"  I  have  been  fifty  years  making  it,  and 
have  spared  no  pains,  opportunity  or  ex 
pense  to  make  it  what  it  is.  While  resid 
ing  in  Paris  I  devoted  every  afternoon  I 
was  disengaged,  for  a  summer  or  two,  in 
examining  all  the  principal  book-stores, 
turning  over  every  book  with  my  own 
hand,  and  putting  by  everything  which 
related  to  America,  and  indeed  whatever 
was  rare  and  valuable  in  every  science. 
Besides  this  I  had  standing  orders,  during 
the  whole  time  I  was  in  Europe,  on  its 
principal  marts,  particularly  Amsterdam, 
Frankfort,  Madrid  and  London,  for  such 
works  relating  to  America  as  could  not  be 


The  Man  of  Letters.  43 

found  in  Paris.  So  that,  in  that  depart 
ment  particularly,  such  a  collection  was 
made  as  probably  can  never  again  be  ef 
fected,  because  it  is  hardly  probable  that 
the  same  opportunities,  the  same  time, 
industry,  perseverance  and  expense,  with 
some  knowledge  of  the  bibliography  of 
the  subject  would  again  happen  to  be  in 
concurrence.  During  the  same  period,  and 
after  my  return  to  America,  I  was  led  to 
procure  also  whatever  related  to  the  duties 
of  those  in  the  high  concerns  of  the  nation; 
so  that  the  collection,  which  I  suppose  is 
of  between  nine  and  ten  thousand  vol 
umes,  while  it  includes  what  is  chiefly 
valuable  in  science  and  literature  gener 
ally,  extends  more  particularly  to  what 
ever  belongs  to  the  American  statesman. 
In  the  diplomatic  and  parliamentary 
branches  it  is  particularly  full.  *  *  * 
Nearly  the  whole  are  well  bound ;  abun 
dance  of  them  elegantly ;  and  of  the 
choicest  editions  existing.'* 


44  Thomas  Jefferson, 

Congress  accepted  this  handsome  offer, 
and  paid  Jefferson  about  twenty-four 
thousand  dollars  for  the  library.  Al 
though  this  was  only  about  one-half  of 
the  original  cost  of  the  books,  the  price 
was  made  to  conform  to  Jefferson's  wishes. 

Jefferson  began  his  efforts  for  the  im-  *\ 
provement  of  education  in  his  native  state 
in  1779,  when  he  introduced  into  the  Gen 
eral  Assembly  of  Virginia  a  bill  for  the 
more  general  diffusion  of  knowledge.  In 
that  bill  he  provided  for  elementary,  sec 
ondary,  and  higher  education.  For  the 
first,  the  state  was  divided  into  town 
ships  or  hundreds,  and  all  the  poor  chil 
dren  were  to  have  free  instruction  for 
three  years  in  reading,  writing  and  arith 
metic.  Two  things  are  noticeable  in  this 
provision  for  common  schools.  Girls  as 
well  as  boys  were  to  be  admitted  to  these 
schools,  in  which  provision  he  was  so  far 
in  advance  of  his  time,  that  even  Boston 
did  not  permit  girls  to  attend  her  public 


The  Man  of  Letters.  45 

schools  until  ten  years  after  that  date. 
Another  striking  provision  in  reference  to 
these  schools  was  that  reading  should  be 
made  the  vehicle  for  historical  instruction. 
The  bill  enjoins  that  "  the  books  which 
shall  be  used  therein  for  instructing  the 
children  to  read  shall  be  such  as  will  at 
the  same  time  make  them  acquainted 
with  Grecian,  Roman,  English  and  Am 
erican  history." 

For  the  secondary  education,  the  bill 
provided  that  academies  or  colleges  should 
be  established  in  every  three  or  five  coun 
ties  throughout  the  state,  where  the  in 
struction  should  be  such  as  would  prepare 
the  students  for  entrance  to  the  state 
university.  A  novel  provision  for  the 
education  of  poor  but  promising  boys 
was  this  :  The  overseers  of  the  common 
schools  were  to  select  annually  the  best 
and  most  promising  genius,  whose  parents 
were  unable  to  afford  him  further  edu 
cation,  and  this  boy  was  to  be  sent  to 


46  Thomas  Jefferson, 

the  nearest   grammar   school   to  be  edu 
cated  gratis  for  one  or  two  years.     At  an 
annual   visitation,    one-third  of  the  least 
promising  of   these  public    foundationers 
were  to  be  dismissed  after  one  year's  in 
struction  ;  the  rest  were  to  remain  for  a 
second  year  at  public  cost,  and  then  all 
were  to  be  dismissed,  or  thrown  on  their 
own  resources,  save  one  only,  the  best  in 
genius  and  disposition,  who  should  be  at 
liberty  to  continue  there  four  years  longer 
on   the    public    foundation,    and    should 
thenceforward  be  deemed  a  senior.     After 
six  years  public  training,  one-half  of  this 
picked  number  was  to  be  dismissed    for 
the  supply  of  Latin  school  teachers,  and 
the  other  half  of  superior  genius  were  to 
proceed  to  William  and  Mary  College  for 
three  years  specialization  in  such  sciences 
as  they  might  select.     By  this  ingenious 
process  of  selection,  Jefferson  would  have 
provided  for  the  highest  education  of  the 
poorest  boys  who  exhibited  the  requisite 
talents  and  industry. 


The  Man  of  Letters.  47 

These  plans  were  never  realized.  But 
Jefferson  succeeded,  after  years  of  toil 
some  effort  and  patient  waiting,  in  estab 
lishing  a  state  university,  in  which  his 
favorite  ideas  in  reference  to  higher  edu 
cation  were  fully  realized,  and  which 
remains,  and  will  remain  through  all 
coming  time,  the  noblest  monument  to 
his  genius  and  character. 

At  first  Jefferson  thought  that  by  modi 
fying  the  constitution  of  his  Alma  Mater, 
William  and  Mary  College,  it  might  be 
made  into  a  state  university  such  as  he 
desired.  But  this  idea  was  soon  aban 
doned.  That  college  was  in  an  unhealthy 
location,  far  removed  from  the  center  of 
population,  and  was  too  thoroughly  under 
the  influence  of  the  Episcopal  church  to 
suit  Jefferson's  tastes.  Charlottesville  had 
the  advantage  of  being  in  a  healthy  and 
beautiful  location,  and  near  the  center  of 
population.  It  met  with  strong  competi 
tors  in  Staunton,  and  in  Lexington,  where 


48  Thomas  Jefferson, 

Washington  College  was  located.  But  the 
personal  influence  of  Jefferson  and  the 
indefatigable  labors  of  his  friend,  Joseph 
Carrington  Cabell,  carried  the  day  in 
favor  of  Charlottesville. 

One  great  source  of  Jefferson's  power 
was  the  fascinating  influence  he  exerted 
over  young  men.  This  influence  was 
never  exerted  to  better  purpose  than 
when  he  enlisted  the  services  of  Cabell  in 
the  cause  of  higher  education  in  his  native 
state.  This  accomplished  young  man  was 
a  graduate  of  William  and  Mary  College 
in  1798,  and  afterward  studied  at  Will- 
iamsburg  with  Judge  Tucker.  He  went 
to  Europe  in  1803  for  his  health.  For 
three  years  he  devoted  himself  to  study 
at  the  leading  universities  of  Europe, — 
Paris,  Rome,  Naples,  Padua,  Leyden, 
Cambridge  and  Oxford.  Educational 
methods  were  the  principal  object  of  his 
inquiry.  In  1806,  then  twenty-eight  years 
old,  he  arrived  in  Washington  with  let- 


The  Man  of  Letters.  49 

ters  of  introduction  to  President  Jefferson. 
The  President  was  so  much  pleased  with 
him  that  he  offered  him  various  positions 
in  the  civil  and  in  the  diplomatic  service. 
Cabell  declined  them,  as  he  preferred  to 
identify  himself  with  the  interests  of 
his  native  state.  Becoming  interested  in 
a  project  for  establishing  a  museum  of 
natural  history  at  William  and  Mary,  he 
wrote  to  Jefferson  for  aid.  The  reply,  writ 
ten  by  Jefferson's  private  secretary  but 
doubtless  inspired  by  Jefferson,  contained 
a  passage  which  determined  his  future 
course.  "  If  the  amelioration  of  educa 
tion  and  the  diffusion  of  knowledge  be 
the  favorite  objects  of  your  life,  avail 
yourself  of  the  favorable  dispositions  of 
your  countrymen,  and  consent  to  go  into 
our  legislative  body.  Instead  of  wasting 
your  time  in  attempting  to  patch  up  a 
decaying  institution,  direct  your  efforts 
to  a  higher  and  more  valuable  object: 
found  a  new  one  which  shall  be  worthy 


50  Thomas  Jefferson, 

of  the  first  state  in  the  Union.  This 
may,  this  certainly  will,  one  day  be  done, 
and  why  not  now  ?  You  may  not  succeed 
in  one  session,  or  in  two,  but  you  will  suc 
ceed  at  last." 

Guided  and  inspired  by  these  words, 
Cabell  entered  Virginia  politics,  became 
a  member  of  the  House  of  Delegates  in 
1809,  and  two  years  later  was  elected  to 
the  State  Senate  where  he  remained 
nutil  1829.  With  a  tact  and  energy  and 
zeal  that  overcame  all  obstacles,  he  car 
ried  through  the  legislation  necessary  to 
the  successful  establishment  of  the  uni 
versity.  The  cause  of  higher  education 
in  Virginia  never  had  a  more  intelligent 
or  devoted  friend. 

It  would  have  been  impossible,  at  that 
time,  to  establish  the  University  of  Vir 
ginia  without  state  aid.  Fortunately  a 
bill  was  passed  in  1810  appropriating  cer 
tain  escheats,  penalties  and  forfeitures  to 
the  encouragement  of  learning.  Thus 


The  Man  of  Letters.  5 1 

was  created  what  was  called  the  literary 
fund.  This  fund  was  a  few  years  after 
ward  increased  by  adding  to  it  the  debt 
due  to  Virginia  from  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  for  expenses  incurred 
in  the  War  of  1812.  So  that  when  the 
time  arrived  for  erecting  the  building  of 
the  university  this  literary  fund  amounted 
to  quite  a  large  sum.  The  difficulty  v/as 
to  get  this  fund  appropriated  to  building 
up  a  university.  It  was  thought  by 
many  then,  and  the  idea  has  by  no  means 
died  out  yet,  that  such  a  use  of  state 
monies  was  undemocratic.  The  money 
of  the  state,  it  was  said,  should  only  be 
used  for  the  support  of  common  schools, 
and  those  who  desired  the  benefits  of  the 
higher  education  should  pay  for  it.  But 
Jefferson  had  the  good  sense  to  perceive, 
and  the  manliness  to  point  out,  the  fal 
lacy  of  those  so-called  Democratic  notions. 
He  told  the  men  of  Virginia  that  com-  / 
mon  schools  should  be  supported  by  local 


52  Thomas  Jefferson, 

taxes,  that  state  aid  would  only  pauperize 
and  degrade  them ;  but  that  a  university 
could  never  be  sustained  by  the  fees  of 
the  students.  As  an  educated  class  was 
essential  to  the  welfare  and  prosperity  of 
the  state,  it  wras  proper  that  the  state 
should  give  its  aid  to  those  institutions 
by  which  alone  that  education  could  be 
provided. 

/  In  a  report  to  the  Virginia  Legisla_ 
/  ture,  Jefferson  said:  "  Some  good  men, 
and  men  of  respectable  information,  con 
sider  the  learned  sciences  as  useless  re 
quirements;  some  think  that  they  do  not 
better  the  condition  of  man  ;  and  others 
that  education,  like  private  and  individual 
concerns,  should  be  left  to  private  indi 
vidual  efforts,  not  reflecting  that  an  estab 
lishment  embracing  all  the  sciences  which 
may  be  useful  and  even  necessary  in  the 
various  vocations  of  life,  with  the  build 
ings  and  apparatus  belonging  to  each,  are 
far  beyond  the  reach  of  individual  means, 


The  Man  of  Letters.  53 

and  must  either  derive  existence  from 
public  patronage,  or  not  exist  at  all.  This 
would  leave  us  then  without  those  callings 
which  depend  on  education,  or  send  us 
to  other  countries  to  seek  the  instruction 
they  require." 

Slowly  but  steadily  these  views  pre 
vailed.  On  the  25th  of  January,  1819, 
the  bill  passed  for  the  establishment  of 
the  University  of  Virginia.  The  manage 
ment  of  its  affairs  was  in  a  board  of  seven 
Visitors,  appointed  by  the  Governor  for 
four  years.  The  Visitors  were  to  choose 
one  of  their  own  members  as  Rector. 
Jefferson  held  this  office  during  his  life. 
Among  his  first  associates  were  James 
Madison  and  Joseph  C.  Cabell.  Six  years 
were  devoted  to  the  construction  of  the 
buildings  of  which  Jefferson  was  both 
architect  and  superintendent  of  construc 
tion.  After  an  expenditure  of  about 
$4.00,000  for  land  and  buildings,  the  uni 
versity  was  open  for  the  reception  of 
students,  April  1st,  1825. 


54  Thomas  Jefferson, 

From  that  day  to  this  the  university 
has  been  conducted  substantially  on  the 
lines  marked  out  by  Jefferson.  It  was 
to  be  a  university  in  the  European  sense 
of  the  word,  and  not  an  American  col 
lege.  There  was,  therefore,  no  curri 
culum,  no  course  of  study  prescribed. 
Each  student  selected  such  studies  as  he 
wished  to  pursue,  and  continued  those 
studies  for  as  long  or  short  a  time  as  he 
pleased.  At  the  end  of  his  studies,  he 
received  a  certificate  of  proficiency  in  the 
studies  he  had  pursued,  if  he  passed  the 
requisite  examination.  As  a  result  of  this 
system  the  university  was  made  up  of  a 
group  of  schools,  each  independent  of  the 
other ;  at  first  there  were  eight  schools ; 
there  are  now  nineteen,  at  which  are 
taught  not  only  the  studies  of  an  aca 
demic  or  scientific  course,  but  the  profes 
sional  studies  of  law,  medicine,  civil  en 
gineering  and  agriculture.  There  is  no 
school  of  theology. 


The  Man  of  Letters.  55 

For  the  first  seven  years  there  were  no 
religious  services  in  the  university.  But, 
as  I  learned  from  Dr.  John  B.  Minor,  the 
venerable  senior  professor  in  the  law 
school,  the  chaplaincy  was  instituted  in 
1832,  when  he  was  a  student  in  the  col 
lege.  It  originated  in  the  feeling  on  the 
part  of  both  the  faculty  and  the  students 
that  the  university  should  have  religious 
services  of  its  own.  Since  1832  there  has 
been  preaching  at  the  university  twice 
every  Sunday,  and  since  1847,  daily  morn 
ing  prayers.  The  attendance  of  the  stu 
dents  is  voluntary.  The  salary  of  the 
chaplain,  varying  from  fifteen  hundred 
to  twro  thousand  dollars  a  year,  is  princi 
pally  derived  from  the  voluntary  contri 
butions  of  the  students.  The  chaplain  is 
chosen  every  two  years,  by  the  faculty, 
from  one  of  the  four  principal  denomin 
ations  of  the  state — the  Episcopal,  Pres 
byterian,  Methodist  and  Baptist — in  reg 
ular  rotation.  Prof.  Minor,  as  I  was 


56  Thomas  Jefferson, 

informed  by  one  of  his  former  pupils, 
has  a  Bible-class  in  his  lecture-room  every 
Sunday,  conducted  with  the  same  thor 
oughness  with  which  he  conducts  his  law 
lectures  on  the  other  days  of  the  week. 

A  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
was  established  at  the  university  in  1858. 
It  is  the  oldest  of  the  college  associations. 
Several  mission  schools  in  the  neighbor 
hood  of  the  university  are  under  its  man 
agement.  A  beautiful  stone  chapel  has 
recently  been  erected  near  the  rotunda, 
through  the  efforts  of  the  wives  of  the 
professors. 

At  first  no  degrees  were  conferred,  but 
that  has  been  changed,  and  degrees  of 
various  kinds  for  proficiency  in  certain 
studies  are  given.  But  no  honorary  de 
gree  is  ever  conferred. 

Of  course  such  a  system  was  only 
adapted  to  students  sufficiently  mature 
to  be  able  to  decide  for  themselves  the 
course  they  wished  to  pursue.  It  has 


The  Man  of  Letters.  57 

worked  well  in  this  university,  as  the 
average  age  of  the  students  who  enter 
the  academic  course  is  nineteen ;  and  of 
the  students  entering  the  professional 
schools,  it  is  twenty-one. 

The  faculty  meet  together  to  decide  on 
matters  of  common  interest,  but  each  pro 
fessor  has  the  entire  control  of  the  meth 
ods  of  study  in  his  own  school.  Each 
year  the  Board  of  Visitors  select  from  the 
faculty  one  to  act  as  Chairman.  At  first 
the  professors  were  paid  a  small  salary 
and  were  allowed,  in  addition,  tuition  fees, 
as  the  students  were  to  pay  separate  tui 
tion  fees  for  each  school  with  which  they 
were  connected.  This  system  has  been 
abandoned  and  the  professors  are  now 
paid  a  fixed  salary  of  $3,000  each. 

In  selecting  the  first  professors  great 
pains  were  taken  to  get  the  ablest  men 
in  their  several  departments.  Five  were 
brought  from  England,  some  of  them  of 
such  eminence  that  in  a  few  years  they 
were  recalled  to  English  universities. 


58  Thomas  Jefferson, 

The  system  of  self-government  among 
the  students  was  adopted  from  the  first 
and  has  on  the  whole  proved  very  suc 
cessful.  There  are  two  examinations  a 
year.  Each  student  appends  to  his  ex 
amination  paper  a  pledge  that  he  has 
neither  given  nor  received  any  assistance 
during  the  examination,  which  pledge  is 
most  rigidly  observed,  as  a  point  of  honor, 
by  all  the  students.  Prof.  J.  M.  Garnett 
says :  "  I  have  never  known  personally 
of  but  one  violation  of  this  pledge,  and 
in  that  case  a  committee  of  his  fellow- 
students  waited  upon  the  offender  and 
informed  him  that  he  must  leave  the 
university,  which  he  did  forthwith.  I 
have  heard  that  a  few  similar  cases  have 
occured  in  the  history  of  the  university 
which  were  similarly  treated.'' 

The  statistics  of  the  university  show 
that  one-half  of  the  students  remain  for 
only  one  year,  and  over  one-fourth  re 
main  for  only  two  years.  But  the  uni- 


The  Man  of  Letters.  59 

versity  has  been  of  inestimable  advantage 
to  Virginia,  and  to  the  South  in  general, 
in  keeping  a  high  standard  of  scholarship 
before  their  young  men.  Besides  its 
training  of  professional  men  it  has  also 
done  a  great  deal  for  the  cause  of  second 
ary  education,  in  furnishing  competent 
teachers  for  the  academies  of  the  South. 

The  session  of  the  university  extends 
from  the  first  day  of  October  to  the  Wed 
nesday  before  the  fourth  day  of  July, 
with  only  a  recess  of  one  day  at  Christ 
mas.  Sundays  excepted,  every  day  in  the 
week,  including  Saturdays,  is  a  working 
day.  So  that  there  are  about  two  hun 
dred  and  thirty-two  working  days  in  each 
session,  which  exceeds,  it  is  believed,  the 
number  of  working  days  in  any  college 
in  the  world. 

The  university  reached  its  highest 
prosperity  in  the  ten  years  from  1850  to 
1860,  w7hen  there  were  six  hundred  stu 
dents  in  attendance  at  its  various  schools. 


60  Thomas  Jefferson, 

It  suffered  greatly  during  the  Civil  War; 
but  since  then  it  has  received  large  gifts 
from  Northern  men,  notably  its  observa 
tory  and  telescope  from  Leander  J.  Mc- 
Cormick  of  Chicago,  a  native  of  Virginia. 
The  present  number  of  students  is  four 
hundred  and  seventy-two. 

In  introducing  the  study  of  Anglo- 
Saxon,  Jefferson  was  greatly  in  advance 
of  his  times.  In  attempting  to  guard 
against  the  teaching  of  any  political  doc 
trines  at  variance  with  his  own,  he  showed 
a  narrowness  strongly  in  contrast  with  the 

%3ft»>* 

liberality  of  his  views  on  other  topics. 

Jefferson  lived  but  little  over  a  year 
after  the  opening  of  his  university,  but 
the  dream  of  his  youth  was  at  last  real 
ized.  Whatever  else  might  happen  to  his 
fame,  here  was  a  monument  that  would 
endure.  In  the  few  months  of  life  that 
remained  to  him  Jefferson  watched  over 
the  university  with  a  fatherly  interest. 
He  was  a  constant  visitor  at  its  halls,  and 


The  Man  of  Letters.  6r 

to  it,  as  to  a  sacred  shrine,  he  conducted 
his  most  distinguished  guests.  In  the 
rotunda  of  the  library  was  given  the  fare 
well  banquet  to  La  Fayette.  Three  times 
a  week  the  professors  were  invited  to  Mon- 
ticello.  Once  every  week  a  party  of  stu 
dents  were  his  guests.  To  have  spent  an 
evening  in  that  gracious  presence,  listen 
ing  to  that  charming  conversation  ;  to 
have  grasped  the  hand  of  that  venerable 
man,  laden  with  all  the  honors  his  coun 
try  could  bestow,  yet  seeming  to  prefer 
the  scholar's  wreath  to  all  civic  crowns, 
this  of  itself  was  a  liberal  education. 

Fortunate  in  his  death,  as  in  his  life, 
the  spirit  of  Jefferson  passed  away  on 
the  Fourth  of  July,  1826,  as  millions  of 
freemen,  all  over  the  land,  were  greeting 
with  exultant  shouts  the  words  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  and  the 
name  of  its  illustrious  author.  If  any 
sounds  could  have  been  dearer  to  him, 
they  would  have  been  the  voices  of 


62  Thomas  Jefferson. 

the  young  students,  greeting  him  as  the 
Father  of  the  University  of  Virginia,  as 
they  bade  him  hail  and  farewell.? 


NOTES. 
I. 

JEFFERSON'S  MONUMENT. 

In  the  "  Domestic  Life  of  Thomas  Jefferson," 
by  Sarah  N.  Randolph,  his  great-granddaughter, 
we  are  told  : 

"  Among  his  papers  there  were  found,  written 
on  the  torn  back  of  an  old  letter,  the  following 
directions  for  his  monument  and  its  inscription  : 
'Could  the  dead  feel  any  interest  in  monu 
ments  or  other  remembrances  of  them,  when,  as 
Anacreon  says  : 

de 


the  following  would  be  to  my  manes  the  most 
gratifying  :  on  the  grave  a  plain  die  or  cube  of 
three  feet,  without  any  mouldings,  surmounted 
by  an  obelisk  of  six  feet  in  height,  each  of  a 


64  Notes. 

single  stone ;  on  the  faces  of  the  obelisk  the  fol 
lowing  inscription,  and  not  a  word  more  : 

HERE   WAS   BURIED 

THOMAS  JEFFERSON, 

AUTHOR   OF  THE   DECLARATION    OF    AMERICAN 

INDEPENDENCE, 
OF  THE   STATUTE   OF  VIRGINIA    FOR   RELIGIOUS 

FREEDOM, 

AND    FATHER  OF  THE   UNIVERSITY   OF 
VIRGINIA  ; 

because  by  these,  as  testimonials  that  I  have 
lived,  I  wish  most  to  be  remembered.  [It]  to 
be  of  the  coarse  stone  of  which  my  columns 
are  made,  that  no  one  may  be  tempted  here 
after  to  destroy  it  for  the  value  of  the  materials. 
My  bust  by  Ceracchi,  with  the  pedestal  and 
truncated  column  on  which  it  stands,  might  be 
given  to  the  University,  if  they  would  place  it  in 
the  dome-room  of  the  rotunda.  On  the  die  of 
the  obelisk  might  be  engraved  : 

BORN,   APRIL   2,    1743,    °-   s- 
DIED, .'  " 

II 

AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  DECLARATION  OF  1775. 

Until  the  publication  of  the  memoirs,  etc.,  of 
Thomas  Jefferson  in  1829,  eleven  years  after  the 


Notes.  65 

death  of  John  Dickinson,  it  had  never  been  dis 
puted  that  Dickinson  was  the  author  of  the 
Declaration  of  the  causes  of  taking  up  arms. 
In  1801  two  volumes  of  Mr.  Dickinson's  political 
writings,  including  this  Declaration,  were  pub 
lished  at  Wilmington,  Del.,  where  Mr.  Dickinson 
resided.  In  1804,  in  a  letter  in  reply  to  the  mis 
taken  assertion  of  Judge  Marshall  that  the  first 
petition  to  the  king  was  written  by  Mr.  Lee,  Mr. 
Dickinson  said  of  his  published  writings: 

"This  publication  being  made  in  the  town  where 
I  reside,  no  person  of  understanding  can  doubt 
that  I  must  be  acquainted  with  the  contents. 
Of  course  I  must  be  guilty  of  the  greatest  base 
ness  if,  for  my  credit,  I  knowingly  permitted 
writings  which  I  had  not  composed  to  be  pub 
licly  imputed  to  me,  without  a  positive  and 
public  contradiction  of  the  imputation.  This 
contradiction  I  never  have  made,  and  never 
shall  make,  conscious  as  I  am  that  every  one  of 
those  writings  was  composed  by  me." 

In  the  autobiography  of  Jefferson,  which  was 
begun,  as  he  tells  us,  when  he  was  seventy-seven 
years  of  age,  Jefferson  states  that  he  prepared  a 
draft  of  a  declaration  of  the  causes  of  taking  up 
arms  which  was  too  strong  for  Mr.  Dickinson. 


66  Notes. 

"We  therefore,"  he  says,  "requested  him  to  take 
the  paper  and  put  it  into  a  form  he  could 
approve.  He  did  so,  preparing  an  entire  new 
statement,  and  preserving  of  the  former  only  the 
last  four  paragraphs  and  half  of  the  preceding 
one." 

This  statement  has  been  accepted  as  true  until 
Mr.  George  H.  Moore,  superintendent  of  the 
Lenox  Library,  delivered  his  address  on  this 
subject  before  the  New  York  Historical  Society, 
on  June  6th,  1882.  In  that  address  he  stated 
that  the  original  draft  of  this  Declaration  was 
found  in  the  manuscript  collection  of  that  soci 
ety.  It  is  not  only  in  the  handwriting  of  Mr. 
Dickinson,  but,  as  Mr.  Moore  says,  the  "cor 
rections,  additions,  interlineations,  revisions,  in 
mumber,  extent,  position  and  character,  forbid 
the  supposition  that  he  copied  any  portion  of 
this  paper  from  a  draft  by  Mr.  Jefferson  or  any 
other  person.  It  is  the  original  first  draft  of  the 
whole,  and  the  proof  of  it  is  in  no  portion  of  the 
whole  more  conspicuous  than  in  the  last  four 
paragraphs,  and  half  of  the  preceding  one, 
claimed  as  his  own  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  in  his  old 
age,  and  accorded  to  him  without  doubt  or 
hesitation  ever  since." 


Notes.  67 

This  address  was  printed  in  1890,  with  a  fac 
simile  of  the  original  draft  of  the  Declaration. 
A  careful  study  of  this  original  draft  makes  it 
clear  that  the  entire  paper  is  the  composition  of 
the  person  in  whose  handwriting  it  is  found. 
Until  Mr.  Jefferson's  draft  is  produced,  his  state 
ment  as  to  the  authorship  of  the  closing  portion 
of  the  Declaration  of  1775  must  be  put  to  the 
account  of  the  mistakes  of  old  age. 

III. 

JEFFERSON  AS  A  LAWYER  AND  LAW 
REFORMER. 

The  following  extracts  from  a  letter  which  I 
have  recently  received  from  Prof.  John  B.  Minor, 
of  the  University  of  Virginia,  the  distinguished 
author  of  the  "  Institutes  of  Common  and  Statute 
Law,"  will  be  read  with  interest : 

"As  a  practitioner  of  the  law  Mr.  Jefferson 
had  hardly  time  to  make  a  distinguished  figure, 
but  from  the  manner  in  which  he  acquitted  him 
self  as  a  law-giver,  I  conceive  that  he  must  have 
mastered  the  elementary  principles  of  juridical 
science  with  extraordinary  proficiency  and  with 
philosophic  appreciation. 


68  Notes. 

"The  independence  of  Virginia  having  been 
declared  by  the  convention-legislature  on  the 
29th  of  June,  1776,  in  October  of  the  same  year 
an  act  was  passed,  chiefly,  it  would  seem,  at  the 
instigation  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  for  a  general  re- 
visal  of  the  whole  code  of  law,  at  the  head  of 
which,  at  the  age  of  thirty-three,  and  when  he 
had  been  only  nine  years  at  the  bar,  he  was 
placed.  The  commission  consisted  of  Thomas 
Jefferson,  Edmund  Pendleton,  George  Wythe, 
George  Mason  and  Thomas  Ludwell  Lee ;  and 
its  president  has  preserved  a  brief  but  interesting 
memorial  of  its  deliberations  and  actions." 

Then  follows  the  account  given  by  Jefferson 
in  his  memoirs  of  the  plan  of  work  agreed  upon 
by  the  commission,  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Mason 
and  Mr.  Lee,  and  the  division  of  the  work  among 
the  three  remaining  members.  The  common  law 
and  statutes  to  the  4  James  I,  when  the  Virginia 
Legislature  was  established,  were  assigned  to 
Jefferson;  the  British  statutes  since  that  time 
to  Mr.  Wythe ;  the  Virginia  Colonial  laws  to 
Mr.  Pendleton.  The  committee  made  their  re 
port  to  the  General  Assembly,  June  i8th,  1779, 
consisting  of  one-hundred  and  twenty-six  bills, 
and  making  a  printed  folio  of  ninety  pages  only. 


Notes,  69 

Some  of  the  bills  were  taken  up  and  passed  from 
time  to  time,  but  the  main  body  of  the  work  was 
not  taken  up  till  1785,  when  through  the  efforts 
of  Mr.  Madison  most  of  the  bills  were  passed 
with  little  alteration. 

"  Amongst  these  bills  were  four  to  which  Mr. 
Jefferson  attached  special  importance,  namely: 

1.  The  bill  to  repeal  the  law  of  entail  and  to 
convert  every  estate-tail  then  existing,  or  which 
should  be  thereafter  created,  into  a  fee  simple. 

2.  The  bill  to  abolish  the  law  of  primogeni 
ture,  and  to  distribute  an   intestates'  estate  of 
inheritance   equally  among  his   heirs,   without 
regard  to  age  or  sex. 

3.  The  bill  to  establish  an  unrestricted  free 
dom  of  religious  belief;  and, 

4.  The  bill  for  the  general  education  of  the 
people,  namely : 

First, — Elementary  schools  for  all  children 
generally,  rich  and  poor. 

Second,— Colleges  for  a  middle  degree  of  in 
struction  ;  and, 

Third, — An  university  for  teaching  the  scien 
ces  generally,  and  in  their  highest  degree. 

"  He  himself  says  :  '  I  considered  four  of  these 
bills,  passed  or  reported,  as  forming  a  system  by 


7O  Notes. 

which  every  fibre  would  be  eradicated  of  ancient 
or  future  aristocracy,  and  a  foundation  laid  for 
a  government  truly  republican.' 
•-  "  No  bill  for  the  emancipation  of  slaves  was 
\  proposed  by  the  revisers,  deeming  it  better  that  it 
should  be  attempted  only  byway  of  amendment 
whenever  the  digest  of  the  laws  on  the  subject 
should  be  brought  up.  'The  principles  of  the 
amendment,  however,'  says  he,  'were  agreed  on  ; 
that  is  to  say,  the  freedom  of  all  born  after  a 
certain  day,  and  deportation  at  a  proper  age.  But 
it  was  found  that  the  public  mind  would  not  yet 
bear  the  proposition,  nor  will  it  bear  it  even  at 
this  day ;  yet  the  day  is  not  distant  when  it  must 
bear  and  adopt  it,  or  worse  will  follow.  Nothing 
is  more  certainly  written  in  the  book  of  fate 
than  that  these  people  are  to  be  free ;  nor  is  it 
less  certain  that  the  two  races,  equally  free,  can 
not  live  in  the  same  government.  Nature,  habit, 
opinion  have  drawn  indelible  lines  of  distinction 
between  them.' 

"  This  subject  had  engaged  the  anxious  atten 
tion  of  the  General  Assembly  ever  since  1699. 
Then  was  commenced  the  series  of  prohibitory 
acts  (as  many  as  twenty-six  in  all),  whereby  it 
was  sought  to  avert  or  discourage  the  further 


Notes.  71 

introduction  of  slaves,  to  which  the  King  of 
England,  or  his  governors,  opposed  the  royal 
negative,  at  the  instance  of  those  who  were 
profitably  concerned  in  the  traffic. 

"The  last  of  these  acts  in  1772  was  accom 
panied  by  an  earnest  petition  to  the  Throne  to 

'remove   all  restraint  which   inhibited  his  Maj-        * 

I 
esty's  governors  assenting  to  such  laws  as  might    "  --„ 

check  so  very  pernicious  a  commerce  as  that  of 
slavery.'  This  petition  like  its  predecessors  was 
disregarded,  and  it  seems  to  show  the  depth 
of  the  general  sentiment  upon  the  subject,  that 
the  preamble  to  the  State  Constitution  of  1776 
(which  has  also  been  the  preamble  of  every  suc 
ceeding  constitution,  as  it  is  to  the  present  one) 
complains  of  it  as  one  of  the  acts  of  'detestible 
and  insupportable  tyranny'  of  the  King  of  Great 
Britain,  that  he  had  prompted  our  negroes  to 
rise  in  arms  among  us,  —  'those  very  negroes 
whom,  by  an  inhuman  use  of  his  negative,  he 
had  refused  us  permission  to  exclude  by  law.' 

"And  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  within  two 
years  after  Virginia  had  become  an  independent 
state,  whilst  the  War  of  the  Revolution  was  yet 
flagrant,  at  the  instance  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  who, 
as  he  tells  us,  introduced  the  bill,  an  act  was 


72  Notes. 

passed  forbidding  the  further  importation  of 
slaves  under  heavy  penalties; — a  policy,  be  it 
remembered,  in  which  Virginia,  under  the  guid 
ance  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  anticipated  Great  Britain 
and  the  United  States  by  almost  thirty  years.' 

"Thus,  under  Mr.  Jefferson's  auspices,  the  fol 
lowing  achievements  in  legislation  were  wrought. 

1.  The  abolition  of  the  African  slave  trade  in 
Virginia. 

2.  The  prohibition  of  all  restraints  upon  the 
freedom  of  religious  opinion. 

3.  The  abolition  of  the  law  of  entails. 

4.  The  abolition  of  the  law  of  primogeniture, 
and  of  all  distinctions  of  age  or  sex  in  the  dis 
tribution  of  the  lands  of  an  intestate  decedent. 

5.  The  origination  of  the  policy  of  a  general 
education  of  the  people,  which,  as  to  university 
instruction,  found  its  consummation  in  his  life 
time   by  the   creation   and   endowment  by  the 
state,  in   1819,  under  his  personal  influence,  of 
the  University  of  Virginia,  which  began  its  oper 
ation  in  1825;  and,  as  to  an  effective  system  of 
primary  education,  was  carried   into  successful 
operation  in  1870. 

6.  The  mitigation  of  the  penal  laws  by  pro 
posing  to  confine  the  death  penalty  to  treason 


Notes.  73 

and  murder,  and  to  punish  the  lesser  felonies  by 
hard  labor  upon  the  public  works,  which  he  was 
afterward  satisfied  should  be  substituted  by  soli 
tary  confinement  and  labor  in  prison,  so  that 
indirectly,  under  his  influence,  the  penitentiary 
system  was  inaugurated  in  1796. 

"  His  marvellous  success  in  the  framing  of 
laws  is  illustrated  in  the  law  of  descents.  That 
statute  abrogated  wholly  the  common  law  canons 
of  descent,  and  substituted  therefor  an  entirely 
new  system  applicable  to  every  possible  case  that 
can  happen,  and  controlled  by  new  analogies, 
and  yet  so  clear  was  its  framer's  perception  of 
his  own  scheme,  and  so  lucid  his  language,  that, 
after  the  lapse  of  more  than  a  hundred  years, 
only  one  serious  controversy  as  to  its  mean 
ing  has  arisen,  and  probably  none  other  will 
ever  arise ;  whilst,  as  if  to  be  a  foil  to  Mr.  Jef 
ferson's  perfection  of  thought  and  expression, 
two  additional  sections  incorporated  in  1792,  by 
a  less  skillful  hand,  have  provoked  repeated 
litigation." 


— 


HOV  I  < JSL 


